Buttercup delights botanists
Wednesday 7th July 2010
The discovery of a corn buttercup at Pimhill Farm, Shropshire, last week has amazed and delighted the county's botanists. It is 50 years since it was last recorded in the county and was believed to be extinct.
It grows to about 50cm in height and has small pale yellow flowers which develop into striking-looking spiky seed heads that inspired its folk names: Devil's claws, Devil-on-all-sides, and hellweed.
Even in the mid-nineteenth century the corn buttercup was uncommon in Shropshire, though prolific further south in lowland England on heavy calcareous soils, where it was noted as a troublesome weed of cereal crops.
The solitary plant was found during an arable weeds training course at Pimhill run by Shropshire Wildlife Trust’s conservation officer, Fiona Gomersall through the Field Studies Council’s Biodiversity Training project.
“This is an very exciting find,” said Fiona Gomersall. “It’s wonderful that this plant is still alive in Shropshire. Pimhill Farm has been organic for 61 years so it has had the best chance of survival here.”
Story by Shropshire Wildlife Trust